Formation model

The leadership formation model

We publish the standard so that nobody has to guess what we mean when we call someone a leader. A standard that cannot be failed is a marketing claim, not a standard.

Experienced and emerging marketplace leaders in a mentoring discussion.

Current status

Registering interest

The formation model and its assessment criteria are published and settled. Cohorts have not yet run, so the first participants will be the Founding Fellowship.

Available now

The complete formation model, its four stages and what is assessed
The commissioning standard and what it does and does not confer
Registering interest in the first cohort

Still being developed

Cohort delivery, dates and the module calendar
Faculty appointments and mentor matching
The digital platform that will carry cohort progress

After you register: you receive an acknowledgement immediately, and cohort details as soon as they are approved.

The sequence

Formation runs in four stages, and they are not interchangeable. We do not put an unformed person into a leadership programme because they are talented, and we do not commission someone because they finished the reading.

I. Gospel

A clear account of the Christian message and a free response to it. Nothing later in the sequence makes sense without it, and we do not treat professional competence as a substitute.

II. Disciple

Character, obedience, prayer and Scripture — carried by a local church and by real relationships. This is the stage most programmes skip because it is slow and cannot be demonstrated in a launch video. It is the stage that determines whether any of the rest holds under pressure.

III. Leader

Conviction and competence developed together. Formation in how a Christian actually decides — about people, money, power, risk, truth-telling and cost — inside the specific industry the person works in.

IV. Multiplication

The point of the whole thing. Leaders who build enterprises, strengthen the institutions they serve, support and plant churches, and form the people coming behind them.

What is assessed

Assessment covers three dimensions, and a person can be strong in one and not ready overall.

Spiritual

Evidence of a living faith, active participation in a local church, and a pastor or leader who knows the candidate well enough to speak to it.

Character

Integrity in private conduct, financial honesty, how the person treats those with no power over them, and how they behave when they are wrong.

Competence

Demonstrated professional capability in a field, the ability to apply biblical conviction to real decisions, and the capacity to teach it to someone else.

What commissioning means

"Commissioned leader" is a defined term, not a compliment. It means a graduate who has been reviewed against the spiritual, character and competence criteria above and approved by the people responsible for that review. It is possible to complete a programme and not be commissioned, and that outcome is not a failure of the person — it is the standard working.

We publish the definition of every term we use in reporting, precisely so that "leader" cannot quietly come to mean "registered".

Read the published definitions

What formation does not guarantee

Completing anything we run guarantees no income, no investment, no funding, no employment, no appointment, no platform and no influence. It is not a credential, it is not accredited, and it does not confer authority in any church.

If anyone ever suggests to you that a VOG programme will secure any of those things, they are misrepresenting us, and we would like to know.

The role of the local church

Formation happens in a church, not on a platform. We expect candidates to be actively involved in a healthy local church throughout, and we will ask for a church reference. We do not ask anyone to reduce their commitment to their church in order to increase their commitment to us — if a programme creates that tension, the programme is wrong.

The Founding Fellowship Become a mentor or faculty member